Notebooks Archive

The US Navy battleship USS Iowa and USS Ticonderoga transits the Suez Canal in 1988.

notebook

How Iran’s Tanker War shaped Trump’s worldview

The American president has been a longstanding critic of US engagement in policing the Middle East's sea-lanes.

Charlie Laderman February 12, 2025

notebook

Securonomics belongs to the world of yesterday

Securonomics was based on the fiction that the state can combine dynamic American capitalism with European-style welfarism. Trump’s return to the White House has shattered this ill..

James Vitali February 10, 2025

A depiction from a contemporary newspaper of 'The Fourth Party'.

notebook

Reform and the long shadow of the Fourth Party

In the 1880s, Randolph Churchill’s band of rebels took on the Conservative Party leadership in the name of ‘Tory Democracy’. Through political dissension and publicity stunts, they..

Harry Cluff February 7, 2025

Cars driving past a Texaco station in 1970s Portland, Oregon.

notebook

The roots of America’s oil anxiety

President Trump’s call for the United States to ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ is a new riff on a familiar theme. American fears about an overdependence on imported oil have a long lineage ..

Jack Dickens February 6, 2025

A 1911 cartoon showing John Pierpont Morgan, then one of the wealthiest men in the world.

notebook

Will Trump’s Golden Age be a Gilded one?

The claim that Trump represents a resurgence of the ruthless capitalism of the Gilded Age is propaganda, not history. Trump’s blend of economic nationalism and realpolitik more clo..

Michael Lind February 5, 2025

The division of Germany as proposed by the US special envoy Charles Bohlen.

notebook

A great power carve up

A 1945 land swap between Britain and the Soviet Union shows the enduring consequences for local populations and landscapes when leaders redraw the map.

Suzanne Raine February 5, 2025

An old house surrounded by modern skyscrapers in Shanghai.

notebook

China’s innovation paradox

China’s DeepSeek is an island of technological excellence, but the country’s AI innovators can only achieve so much without greater political freedom and institutional flexibility.

George Magnus February 4, 2025

The construction by Rosatom of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh.

notebook

Russia’s global grip on nuclear energy

Like its Soviet predecessor, Russia’s nuclear energy industry is a tool of state power pursuing military and foreign policy goals with ruthless ambition.

Paul Josephson February 3, 2025

notebook

China’s AI Sputnik moment is not what it seems

China's AI sector has profound strengths, but it will need to overcome a range of complex challenges if it is to thrive, as the unveiling of the AI model DeepSeek shows.

Alice Han January 31, 2025